The global demand for delicious sea urchin roe is rising, while supply is dwindling. Aquaculture has the potential to fill the gap. With tasty tropical and temperate species, Australia is well placed to create a new seafood industry. What bottlenecks remain and how can research and development tackle them? Urchin Aquaculture Australia invites interested parties to an open workshop in 2019.

– Agenda –

Introduction (Tim Dempster, UniMelb)

Industry perspectives

Development of Tripnuestes aquaculture (Adrian Smith, Mugenuni)

Tasmanian urchin industry (Imogen Fullagar, Weathering Change)

Land-based aquaculture of Heliocidaris (Scott Grierson, Aquatrophic)

Current R&D aquaculture projects around Australia

Tripneustes aquaculture in NSW (Ben Mos, Southern Cross)

Heliocidaris in Victoria (Fletcher Warren-Myers, UniMelb)

Heliocidaris in Tasmania (John Keane, UTas)

What’s next in R&D?

Diet (David Francis, Deakin Uni)

Processing & export (Symon Dworjanyn, Southern Cross)

Pre-harvest quality control (Tim Dempster, UniMelb)

Fishery innovation (Steve Swearer, UniMelb)

Workshop brainstorming – making a national plan for urchin aquaculture